Alternative Entertainment At It's Finest

Sunspinnaz drop a lyric video hovering across the clouds on a thrilling musical journey. Sung with a nice blend of vocal harmonies and well-crafted melodies, this song is surely one to make you escape your daily troubles.

Finally Apple is in the streaming game. Other than to say that it looks like Apple has made a big first step towards making streaming ‘ready for primetime’ and to becoming a music platform I’m not going to add to the list of reviews and first impressions, there are plenty of good one’s like Walt Mossberg’s. Instead I’m going to run through a few of the likely milestones and unintended consequences that we could see over the coming months.

Expect Impressive Numbers Real Soon

As we revealed on our MIDiA Research report on Apple Music back in March 28% of iOS users stated they were likely to pay for the service. Among downloaders the rate is 39% and for existing subscribers that rate rises to 62%. Consumer surveys of course always over-report so we shouldn’t expect those rates of paid adoption but the relative values are interesting nonetheless. Given…

When Tidal made its big media push at the end of March, the core message was clear: While other streaming music services like Spotify and Pandora pay a pittance to artists, Tidal offers musicians a better deal. Unfortunately, Tidal also opted to use super stars like Nicki Minaj and Beyonce as spokespersons for the app. The result was the ultimate mixed message: You should feel sorry about how little money Nicki makes.

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How does one go about remixing a legendary record? Tuff Gong Television takes us deep into the making of Legend: Remixed, a journey where new producers take on an age old classic. To put a modern spin on such a legendary piece is not a task to be taken lightly.

Goodvibepeople, an agency catering to music, art and entertainment serves as a multi-functional hub for artists to establish their careers in today’s landscape. Based in Montreal Qc Canada, this label offers an alternative way of developing, marketing and providing opportunities for artists in order for them to thrive through their craft on the local and international scene.

To fully understand how Goodvibepeople functions and how it is different from any other entity that develops and markets artists, let us first briefly dive into how the standard ‘record label’ works. In general, it resembles a product licensing agreement, whereby the record label agrees to fund the various aspects of an artists’ career in exchange for exclusive rights to their music. In exchange for studio time, marketing efforts, distribution, and connections (to name a few), the record label can now leverage the product (the music) in whichever way it desires to make a profit. Like a licensing deal for a product, the label now has exclusive rights to the music. The artist hands over creative and financial control over how the music should be presented, and in many ways the record label holds a patent on the artist’s music, making it essentially theirs. Sure the artist may have some say in the process but like a simple worker in a huge company, they are not in charge and do not get to make the final decision, they are more like an employee of the record label. At this point, you may be saying to yourself that for all that a record label does for the artist, cashing in less than 5% of revenue may not be such a bad deal after all. However, the devil is in the details. When signing a record deal, amongst all those hundreds of pages and through all that lawyer jargon and fine print, the artist does not realize that in many cases they are living on a loan that is expected to be paid back. If the artist is not successful to the point of generating significant money for the label, the artist is either dropped or worse, in debt to the label. After all the career aspects need to be paid off, what is left to a band that has put their heart and soul into their craft is either very small- or a negative figure that is owed to the label.

This is why people say that it is so hard to make it in the music industry because if you are not a top 0.1% international sensation you will have difficulty making ends meat. The problem, however, is that the ‘all or nothing’ system is flawed. With the advent of the internet crossing borders, making everything cheaper and more accessible, the rules of the game have changed, the playing field has leveled. DIY artists can now operate without the need of huge corporate backing to be successful. A band can now take other aspects of their music career into their own hands.

However, for an act to truly be successful on a large scale and have all of the aspects of their careers taken care of, DIY is not enough. This is where Goodvibepeople comes in, a DIT (Do It Together) approach to the music business. The label takes on mature acts that have taken responsibility over their careers and have a product that is ready to hit the market. If the music is compatible with the Goodvibepeople standard, this ‘art society’ works alongside the artists to develop and implement a strategy to professionally present their music to the masses who want it. Producing concerts, providing services and resources for artists, creating content for social media, pitching the press and blogs, handling distribution, securing licensing deals and soliciting industry contacts are just some of the things that Goodvibepeople provides for their artists to establish a sustainable career. Above all, it is a society that acts as a collaboration space between artists and industry professionals, bridging their efforts to put on quality shows and substance for the fans. The fruits of the labor then get fairly distributed amongst everyone involved, and all parties get a piece. Every project that is undertaken becomes an entity with shareholders working towards a common goal, this team effort allows for creative freedom and equitable revenue splitting.

Goodvibepeople believes that this is truly the best way to foster creativity, develop better art, and do good business. The way we create and disseminate art has evolved, the state of the industry has shifted, and even the way in which we experience and consume it has changed- shouldn’t it be time for more labels to catch up to the wave?